Wednesday, July 23, 2025 PM

Prayer and Opening Scripture Reading

Let's close out our time of prayer with prayer, and then I'll have Chris come lead us in our psalm, okay? Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this day. I thank you for the blessing of fellowship together.

I thank you for hearing our requests. Isaiah chapter 7 tonight, we're going to be beginning with a survey of chapters 7 and 8, and even beyond that, how chapters 7 through 12 sit within the overall message of Isaiah.

And then we'll see how far we get into the first couple of verses. Isaiah chapter 7, and we'll plan on reading verses 1 through 9. Isaiah chapter 7, verses 1 through 9. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.

And it was told to the house of David, saying, Syria's forces are deployed in Ephraim. So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shir Jashub, your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fuller's field, and say to him, take heed and be quiet.

Do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands. For the fierce anger of Rezin in Syria and the son of Remaliah, because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabal.

Thus says the Lord God, It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, so that it will not be a people.

Isaiah in Historical and Literary Context

The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. Now as we think about the book of Isaiah, the first thirty-five chapters entail sermons for a difficult present, sermons preached by Isaiah to Judah in light of Judah's rebellion against God and the great threat of Assyria, the world's superpower.

And then in the middle section of Isaiah we have stories that shape history. Chapters thirty-six through thirty-nine that have historical narrative about how Assyria ended up and how Babylon comes upon the scene.

And then chapters forty through sixty-six are sermons for a challenging future as Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem comes into view prophetically and the need for a new covenant is established more clearly in those final chapters of Isaiah.

For now we're in the first twelve chapters where the Lord is established as Judah's true redeemer. Of course the Lord is the one who's bringing the judgment upon Judah, but he's also their true redeemer.

They have no one else to look to to save them. And in the first twelve chapters this is divided up into two sections. The first one, the first six chapters are about the children of woe. And in these chapters we learn about how wicked Judah is, how apostate, how far away from God this whole nation is.

And the first five chapters are actually sermons that are interwoven and so structured together that they represent truly all the main themes that Isaiah brings throughout the rest of his composition.

But there are no particular historical events that are assigned throughout those first five chapters. Those five can just stand on their own to lay out the entirety of the problem. And then we come to chapter six where we have Isaiah's commissioning as the prophet and him being sent out with a particular message, one that is going to ensure the judgment of Judah.

As although they have ears and eyes, they're not going to understand or perceive the message. In fact, their hearts are going to grow more and more dull, more and more cold as the preaching continues.

So, I thought it would be helpful to think about what happens in chapters seven through twelve. In contrast to the children of woe is the child of hope. Of course, Israel was to be set forth as the light of the Lord to the nations.

Through the descendants of Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God makes special covenant with him at Sinai. Here's how you're going to manifest my glory among the nations and be a beacon of light to all of them.

If you succeed, here's a blessing and everyone will look at you and say, wow, you're amazing like they did during the days of Solomon. But if you sit against me and you become idolatrous and corrupt, then I'm going to judge you in spectacular ways.

And then everyone's going to wag their heads at you and hiss and say, oh my goodness, I've never seen something like that in my life. But either way, God reveals his reality to the nations, either by the blessing of Israel or by the cursing of Israel.

So, as we think about the situation that the people are in right now, they're under the judgment of God, they're facing the curse of God, and they really can't look to themselves for any kind of solution.

They can't look to themselves for any kind of hope. But there is one promise from among them. The children of woe are still the people from which the child of hope comes. So, there's this promised seed all the way from Genesis 3 .15, the promised seed hinted at by Lamech, the father of Noah, the promised seed that we have to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this son that God prefigures in the life of the nation of Israel, the son of David that we have in the covenant made between God and David concerning his heirs.

And so, the child of hope comes into full view in chapters 7 through 12 of Isaiah, and this is meant to be the counterpoint to the children of woe. Yes, Judah's a mess. Yes, there's no hope here. But there's one that comes from among them.

He's the child of hope, and that's where the attention is given. So, chapters 7 and 8, we have the sign of Emmanuel. And we're going to look at that key verse in a moment. In chapters 9 and 10, we have the light and the Lord of Israel.

And then in chapters 11 and 12, we have the branch and root of Jesse. So, those chapters, 7 through 12, focus in on Messiah, and we get a lot of our Christmas passages out of this section of Isaiah. And this section of Isaiah gets quoted a lot in the New Testament as the apostles reflect on the promises of Messiah.

So, I thought we would look at a key verse or verses for each one of these sections and think about the main themes to understand this area of Isaiah that we're moving into. Well, the first two chapters of our section, chapters 7 and 8, is all about the sign of Emmanuel, and this key verse will be very familiar to you.

Verse 14 of chapter 7, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall call his name Emmanuel. That's a fairly famous verse. We've got Handel's Messiah singing it.

We've got other Christmas carols that we sing. We hear that verse. That'll show up on Christmas cards. We're going to see that a lot. God offers the sign of Emmanuel to stubborn Ahaz and the whole nation of Judah, and God insists that he is going to be with them.

And we're going to discover that that means both for salvation and for judgment. Now, in chapters 9 and 10, we have the light and Lord of Israel. Key verses there would be chapter 9. And we could look at verse 2, but then also look at verses 6 and 7.

So chapter 9, verse 2, and verses 6 and 7. These will also, I think, sound familiar. Verse 2 says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

And then verses 6 and 7,. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And so we're told that this promised child that we begin hearing about in chapter 7. This promised child will bring the light of God to the nations as the unrivaled king on the throne of David.

Rebellion and idolatry in Isaiah's day are judged. This is described especially in chapter 10. But that judgment comes in light of the Messiah's coming day. And that brings us to chapters 11 and 12. The branch and root of Jesse.

And there we have key verses in chapter 11. Verses 1 and 2. And verse 10. Verses 1 and 2. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. And a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

The spirit of wisdom and understanding. The spirit of counsel and might. The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. The sevenfold spirit. The plentitude of the spirit dwells upon who? Branch man.

Or as we know from branch town. From Nazareth. And so the Messiah comes from Nazareth. So he's a Nazarene. He's the branch man. And the spirit dwells and anoints him as the Messiah. And then verse 10.

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse. Who shall stand as a banner to the people. For the Gentiles shall seek him. And his resting place shall be glorious. And so not only does he branch forth from Jesse.

As Jesse begot David. And David begets the son of David. So he's the branch out of Jesse. But he's also the root of Jesse. And so he's the root. And so everybody should identify who's coming into this salvation.

The Sign of Emmanuel: Salvation and Judgment

Into his kingdom. Everybody is to be grafted into him. We talked a little bit about that last week. Thinking about John 15 and Romans 11. Now the sign of Immanuel in chapters 7 and 8. I think it's easy for us to think we know what the sign of Immanuel is all about.

Given the fame of Christmas. But the original context of the sign of Immanuel. Has a complexity and richness that is many times overlooked. God certainly promises a future ruler in the form of a special child.

In the name of Immanuel. Certainly when we hear Immanuel. We think of God's presence to save God with us. It's tied to Jesus. He will save his people from their sins. Matthew chapter 1. And so we certainly lay hold of Immanuel as a name of salvation.

But it's not limited to that. It certainly does point us to the atonement. But the incarnation means both salvation and judgment. As God draws near. We're going to discover that as we look at chapters 7 and 8.

That God uses the name Immanuel to convince Judah that he's going to judge them. That's not all it means. It also means that he's going to be present to save. Now this unfolds in two chapters. We have chapter 7 which is about the future ruler.

And then chapter 8 about a flooding river. The future ruler obviously is Immanuel. There's a king who's going to come. The child who's going to reign that we hear about in chapters 9 and 11. But when we get into chapter 7.

We find that the king of Judah is now a man named Ahaz. Remember chapter 6 in the year that king Uzziah died. But now we have a king called Ahaz. He's frightened of other kings. He's frightened of Pekah who's the king of Israel.

He's frightened of Rezin who's the king of Syria. And both of them rule from their capital cities of Samaria and Damascus respectively. But here 8 years after Isaiah chapter 6. 8 years after Isaiah's commission.

God sends Isaiah with a sign to Ahaz that showcases God's sovereignty over all these threats. And he promises a ruler that is far more to be feared than the current men that Ahaz fears. And there's layers of prophetic irony that are put throughout the chapter.

When we get to chapter 8. The prophet warns of impending judgment through the symbolic meaning of the prophet's own son. His second born son. Named, wait for it. Meher Shalal Hashbaz. Yes, it is the longest word in the Bible.

It means swift to the spoil, hastened to the prey. And his second born son was so named. Because it signaled the swift destruction of Israel and Syria by Assyria. Don't get Syria and Assyria confused.

Assyria was the big superpower. And the Lord who controls that big superpower is far more to be feared than Rezin or Pekah or any of them. Because nobody can stop God. Key verses from chapter 8. If you get a sense of what chapter 8 is all about.

It's going to be verses 10 and 18. Verses 10 and 18 will be your key verses out of this chapter. Verse 10 says, take counsel but it will come to nothing. Speak the word but it will not stand.

Why?

For God is with us. Now, God is with us. Now what does that remind you of? Oh, Emmanuel.

Emmanuel.

And the context of verse 10 is, everyone wants to stop the judgment. Everyone wants to stop the carnage. Everyone wants to stop the foreign invaders. Well, they're going to take counsel. They're going to come up with plans.

They're going to say how they're going to stop it. But you know, it's not going to work. Why? Because Emmanuel. Because God is with us. That doesn't mean in this particular case that he's going to make everything nice and pleasant for you.

God is saying that to his people. Saying, you can't stop the judgment I'm bringing. That's the sense of Emmanuel. And it's helpful to remember that in the Old Testament, when God pays a visit. The old Hebrew word, pakad.

That when he takes a visit, normally when he visits, it's for judgment. When he shows up, when he came down to investigate how things are going with Adam and Eve, it was judgment day. When he came to visit at the Tower of Babel, it was judgment day.

When you have the metaphors in the Old Testament about God riding on the clouds in wrath and fury to melt mountains and to dry up rivers and so on. This visitation is one of judgment. And that's what's being illustrated here through this particular use of Emmanuel.

Ahaz, the Northern Kings, and Judah's Crisis

So, looking at chapter 7 itself, as we just keep on narrowing down what we're looking at. Ahaz, of course, his main concern in surveying his kingdom and the political situation is that he doesn't know if he's going to continue to reign.

He doesn't know if he's going to endure. He doesn't know if he's going to be able to stay in power. He's worried about the ascendancy of Pekah, king of Israel, the northern kingdom. He's worried about Rezan, the king of Syria, and the way in which both those nations have politically allied themselves and how they are coming after Judah.

So, he doesn't know what the future is going to be, but he's afraid. But he's totally missed the fact that God has ordained a different oppressor to arise that will not only destroy Pekah and Rezan, but also oppress Judah as well.

And so, God sends his prophet to give a sign to Ahaz to point to an even better future ruler, a child who will govern not only Judah, but also Israel, indeed all of the Gentiles. When you put that into the context of all six chapters of this section of Isaiah.

And so, in the first nine verses that we read tonight, the sovereignty of the Lord is proclaimed. God is saying to Ahaz, your fear is misplaced. You have no idea. You think you understand the political situation.

You think you know how it's all going to turn out. But in fact, I'm the one who's in charge. Remember the problem from chapter one of Isaiah. Judah has forgotten God. That's the basic situation. They have forgotten God.

They don't even remember that they're called his children. They don't think about him at all. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And so, God sends his prophet to confront Ahaz to make him remember.

And then God gives a sign. In verses 10 -25 of chapter 7, God gives a sign. God invites Ahaz, even commands Ahaz to ask for a confirming instructive sign. Ahaz rebels. Ahaz rejects. And the fact that Ahaz says, I don't want any sign from you, is very consistent with the spiritual condition of Judah as a whole.

And then the Lord says, I'm going to give you a sign anyway. A sign of Immanuel. And then Isaiah, chapter 7 I think is a bit underappreciated as one of Isaiah's better mockery selections. So Isaiah was great at mocking people who reject God.

And chapter 7 is a pretty well composed variety of that. The sovereignty of the Lord is proclaimed in the first nine verses. The fear is revealed in the first six. And then the fear is redirected in verses 7 -9.

Now, I want to look at verses 1 -6 as a whole. I want you to see how it breaks down. Ahaz, the king of Judah, and all of Judah with him, face a crisis in verses 1 -2. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that the resident king of Syria, Empeka, the son of Amalia, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.

And it was told to the house of David, saying, Syria's forces are deployed in Ephraim. So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as trees of the woods are moved with the wind. You ever heard the expression, shaking like a leaf?

That's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. Shaking like a leaf in the wind. It's a biblical description. A lot of history happens in verses 1 and 2. We don't have time tonight to go through it all.

We'll do that in our next opportunity. But to put the matter bluntly, Empeka and Rezin came into Judah. And yeah, they didn't take Jerusalem, but they did kill 100 ,000 men of Judah. And they took away captive 200 ,000 others, like women and children, and hauled them north to make slaves of them in Israel and in Syria.

And now, in the middle of that, after that defeat, although Jerusalem has survived, that's why they're shaking like a leaf. Because, why? Word has come, Syria and Israel are marshalling for round two.

That's why they are frightened. That's why they're scared. So, that's the crisis that Ahaz and all of Judah face. And then, God confronts Ahaz in his fear. And we see that in verse 3. So, Ahaz is out there looking to a necessary part of the defenses of his city.

You have to have water to survive a siege. So, he's looking at the aqueduct, trying to figure out how they're going to survive the upcoming battle. He figures they're going to be under siege again. And God sends Isaiah out there with his toddler son, Shear Jashub.

I don't know if the kid is weaned or not, but he's a little guy. And he's carrying this prophetic child with an odd name to go talk to Ahaz. And why is that? Because Shear Jashub, his name, means, a remnant shall return.

And that's just loaded with prophetic significance, given the last verse of Isaiah chapter 6, and the historical context in which Isaiah is talking to Ahaz when 200 ,000 people have been taken away captive.

And here comes Isaiah with his toddler boy named, a remnant shall return to talk to Ahaz. And then we have a command, God commands Ahaz, through his prophet in verse 4,. And so God is saying, stop shaking like a leaf.

He basically says, why don't you sit down and stop trying to do stuff? You're anxious, you're afraid, you're up, you're pacing around, you're walking around, you're inspecting your aqueduct, you're trying to figure out how you're going to make this work, how you're going to survive.

Why don't you just sit down and be quiet? Why don't you just stop? We learn later through other passages, and we'll see more about this, Ahaz has sent word to the king of Assyria, and a bunch of bribe to the king of Assyria, gold straight out of the temple, God's temple, to bribe the king of Assyria to get him out of hot water.

And God says, no, no, no, not like that. He sends Isaiah with a toddler to tell Ahaz, why don't you just stop? Why don't you just stop? And then the concern, of course, is that there's a conspiracy, verses 5 and 6.

Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Amalia have plotted evil against you, saying, let us go against Judah and Trebolet, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel.

All right, there is a conspiracy, yeah. And this is not a conspiracy theory, this is a conspiracy fact. Round two is that the armies from the north are going to come down, lay siege, they're going to bust a hole in the side of Jerusalem, and they're going to get in there, and they're going to stick their own puppet king, declare him to be king, and turn the whole population of Jerusalem over to the new king, and cause a lot of disruption.

So they're going to, instead of just taking out the whole city, they're going to insert their own king and have a coup. That's their plan. And so, here's the situation. Ahaz, the king, he thinks he knows what's going on.

He thinks he understands the situation. He thinks he's got a good handle on the political crisis that they're facing. He thinks he knows the strength of the enemy. He thinks he knows how he can manipulate an ally to help him get out of the jam.

He thinks he knows how he can manage his defenses. He thinks he knows what the conspiracy is so he can prepare to stop it. But the Lord sends his prophet to say, Why don't you sit down and be quiet? And then will compel him to believe in promises that God had already given to Judah.

Promises that God had already made. And call Ahaz to faith in God rather than faith in himself. It's not unique to the life of Judah that one's theology has a great deal to do with one's politics. Those things are always integrated.

And the very fact that Ahaz had forgotten God shows up in his politics. Because he's fearing man, fearing man, fearing man, and so he's putting his trust in men, trying to get men to do something to counter men.

He's all about men. And so his theology is informing his politics. And so at the very basic level, God sends his prophet with a sign to the king of Judah, for the sake of the whole nation of Judah, to remind them about fearing God rather than man.

And if they would fear God, then that would change their politics. And things would begin to change for the better. So that's the basic outline of what we're going to be looking at in verses one through six.

And we're going to get into the details. And next time we'll be reading passages out of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles and see the details and the richness of God's sovereign, providential watch care for his people.

Okay?

Closing Prayer and Exhortation to Fear God

Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for the time we've had in your word. I thank you for this portion of Isaiah that we get to read and study and consider. And I pray, Lord, that you would use it to encourage us.

As we too live in days filled with rumors and information and doomsday, scrolling, and all manner of concern where we are being told time and again to fear man. But I pray that you would remind us of how good you are, that you are in charge, and that you would bring your promises to our mind, that we would fear you instead.